Andy Warhol In Brooks — And Chrome

April 3, 2011

Last week a chrome statue of Andy Warhol was unveiled in New York’s Union Square. Sculptor Rob Pruitt opted to depict the artist circa 1977 in his Americana uniform of Brooks Brothers blazer and Levi’s 501 jeans.

Mr. Pruitt’s version of Warhol, which he devised on a computer, is young and beautiful with an uncharacteristically delicate nose and an unusually kempt fright wig. He resembles a taller version of Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter, as well as the sleek preppy young men found in Warhol’s early drawings: the Andy that Andy, famously sensitive about his looks, would have liked to be. He wears the basic Warhol uniform of blazer, button-down shirt and rep tie with jeans and stylish oxfords. A Polaroid camera — impossibly bulky by today’s standards — hangs from his neck, and in his right hand he holds a Bloomingdale’s shopping bag, in which he usually carried copies of Interview, the celebrity magazine he founded in 1969.

Mr Chensvold, I totally agree with Mr Opie – what’s the magic in an ugly, talentless pervert? A statue of Richard Nixon would make more pure ‘Ivy’ sense. The tentacles of Warhol’s con-man’s ‘art’ extend beyond the grave.

It’s ‘Miss’ Church, FYI. ‘Ms’ hasn’t quite got the Ivy touch to it, I feel. The reports seem undecided as to whether it was a blazer or a tweed jacket – some difference, I think. But the question arises whether Andy would have used Brooks at all. There is a lot of bogus history around and it is irresponsible for journalists heedlessly to jump to conclusions without proof. After all, Mr Moron might have gone to Oxxford, for all we know.